There's Nothing like Christmas
by mapplepie
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Naruto decided to rob the Uchiha Compound … in a manner of speaking. Sorta. Kinda. Not really. But hey, good thing Kakashi's there to stop it!


_A/N: I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!_

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><p>To be absolutely honest, Kakashi regretted it the exact moment he stopped Naruto. After all, nothing good ever came of Naruto when the boy started sneaking around.<p>

And sneaking the blond was, with his hunched shoulder and nervous rabbit twitches as he tiptoed his way around the exterior of the Uchiha Compound. All done in his blinding orange jumpsuit, of course. There was a light veil of snow on the ground, covering the area white. Honestly, that only made Naruto's orange stand out even more – not that the boy realised it. Because he wasn't Naruto if he wasn't wearing eye-blinding orange, whether or not he was trying to discreetly Break and Enter into a fellow teammate's home.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kakashi demanded, taking two long strides to Naruto and pulling the boy away from the Uchiha Compound by the collar of his jacket.

The boy flailed in fear before settling with a crossed-arm sulk when he realised just who was holding on to him. "Sensei, don't give me away!" he cried, as though he had actually been doing a good job sneaking around the street unseen in his hideously eye-blinding jacket.

"My bad," Kakashi said blandly. "What are you doing?" he asked again.

Naruto likely didn't even notice his dry tone. "Reverse robbery," the boy said proudly.

Kakashi blink. "One more time?" he requested almost unwillingly, half-wishing he'd heard wrong.

"Reverse robbery."

Nope. Same thing as before. The silver-haired man pulled his face into a frown, staring down at the boy. "And 'reverse robbery' is what exactly?" he asked painfully, hoping he wouldn't regret the answer.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Obviously when I reverse rob someone," the kid said with a '_duh'_ in his tone.

That really didn't help Kakashi in any way what-so-ever. "Let's pretend for a moment you _didn't_ just make up a term, Naruto," the man said with a sigh, "Explain to me what it means?"

There was a loud huff, before Naruto straightened up from his hunched 'inconspicuous' form. "Jeeze, Kakashi-sense, how do you not know?" the boy muttered, "Haven't you ever sneaked in and slipped something into someone else's house without them noticing?"

"What sort of something?" Kakashi probed hesitantly. Because, yes, he _had_ slip things into other people's house before, but those 'somethings' usually went _bang_ and killed the occupants within. He had a feeling that wasn't what Naruto had in mind. And those, by the way, were in no terms called '_reverse robbery'_s either.

Naruto shrugged defiantly, grumbling under his breath as he stared down onto the ground. "It's Christmas."

It took a second for Kakashi's mind to make sense of that statement. "So you're sneaking into the Uchiha Compound to give Sasuke a gift?" Kakashi finally confirmed slowly, trying not to sound too incredulous.

"Sensei!" the boy whined, "Don't say it like that. Boys don't give other boys gifts!"

The silver-haired Jounin rolled his eyes. "No, they just reverse rob them," he uttered dryly.

Naruto beamed. "See, now you get it!"

Kakashi dropped the boy from his grasp, letting a long exasperated sigh drift from his lips. "Can't you just hand it to Sasuke? Like a normal child?" Naruto seemed perfectly happy handing Sakura _her_ present in person during training that morning. Surely it couldn't be _that_ different.

Naruto looked appalled at the idea.

"Alright. Maybe not," Kakashi answered himself, shaking his head at the wonders of children in this new generation. Kakashi was sure he could get away with saying some _'back in my days'_ stories, but honestly, he didn't have any of those. Maybe kids were like this back in his generation as well? Kakashi shuddered at the idea.

"Well, at least let me see what you got Sasuke," Kakashi sighed. The least he could do was to make sure Naruto didn't get the kid something potentially dangerous.

"Okay." Naruto pulled out something brown from inside his jacket. He lifted the box in his hand, slowly peeling open the top flap. It was a remarkably plain box for a present, lacking any wrapping paper, and sporting a half-squashed bow on the top. There was a scribble on one side that vaguely spelled out '_Sasuke'_. Naruto shoved the box in Kakashi's face. "It's a tomato plant."

There were small green tomatoes hanging from the little plant, crammed snug-tight in the tiny container. Naruto nodded in response when Kakashi saw them. "How else will the bastard know it's a tomato plant if there aren't any tomatoes on it already? They'll be ripe enough to pick in a week."

Kakashi pushed the lid close with a small smile on his face. "Good job, Naruto," the man praised. He patted the kid absentmindedly on the head like he did with his dogs, until Naruto finally had enough and made impatient noises from the back of his throat. With a reluctant nod, Kakashi eventually sent Naruto back on his way once more to him finished up his 'reverse robbery'.

Kakashi made a note to add in a few lessons on stealth for their next training sessions as he watched Naruto scamper off once more. Clearly Naruto didn't know what stealth even meant.

But still, maybe these kids weren't as hopeless as he'd initially thought. If they all took the initiative like Naruto did, perhaps his three little Genin would manage to become a cohesive team in the end.

… well, maybe not _exactly_ like Naruto. He could do without anymore reverse robberies, especially before anyone called in the Konoha Police Force on his kids.

With an amused little hum, Kakashi strolled off. In the back of his mind, Kakashi idly wondered if he needed to cancel the traps that littered across his apartment unit. It wouldn't do to have Naruto caught while playing Santa after all, and that _other_ box in Naruto's jacket most definitely had his name messily scrawled on it.


End file.
